B.C. residents staying festive on dark, cold Christmas
Meteorologist
Tuesday, December 25, 2018, 1:37 PM - Nearly a week after one of the most damaging storms in the past 20 years more than ten thousand customers remain without power in British Columbia, putting a decided damper on a lot of holiday festivities this Christmas day.
B.C. Hydro had 90 crews working on Vancouver Island on December 25, with approximately 12,000 customers on the island and some of the southern Gulf Islands still waiting to see power restored after last Thursday's vicious storm. In a statement, the utility reported 400,000 customers were simultaneously without power at the height of the outages. Crews have restored power to more than 600,000 customers overall since the onset of the storm last week.
(Related: BC power outages drag on into Christmas day)
The tremendous extent of the damage from the storm is in part due to the conditions that preceded it -- both over the past summer and in the days immediately beforehand. An extremely dry summer weakened root systems of some of the largest trees, while intense, soaking rain in the days leading up to the storm softened the ground and left the trees more susceptible to be pushed down by the wind. Couple that set up with the fact that, prior to last week's storm, there had been relatively little in the way of active weather through the autumn that might have otherwise 'pruned' trees primed to fall, and we wound up with thousands downed on power lines, roads, and buildings through the course of the extreme wind event.
Some of those still waiting for the power to come back on weren't letting the lack of power spoil their day, however, coming up with creative solutions to make the season bright -- even in the dark.
